Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/101

 CHAP. in. 13. INTRODUCTION. 87 and assumes that kind of level which Archimedes has assign- ed it. 13. To what we cited before concerning the temple of Am- mon and Egypt, Eratosthenes adds, that to judge from ap- pearances, Mount Casius 1 was formerly covered by sea, and the whole district now" known as Gerra lay under shoal water touching the bay of the ErythraeanTSea, 2 but was left dry on the union 3 of the [Mediterranean] Sea [with the ocean]. A certain amphibology lurks here under this description of the district lying under shoal water and touching the bay of the Erythraean Sea; for to touch 4 both means to be close to, and also to be in actual contact with, so that when applied to water it would signify that one flows into the other. I under- stand him to mean, that so long as the strait by the PijjarsVf Hercules remained closed, these marshes covered with shoal- water extended as faras the ^AnibiajU^ulf, but on that pas- sage being forced. .open, the Mediterranean, discharging itself by the strait, became lower, and the land was left dry. On the otherTiand, Hipparchus understands by the term touching, that the Mediterranean, being over-full, flowed into the Erythraean Sea, and he inquires how it could happen, that as the Mediterranean flowed out by this new vent at the Pillars of Hercules, the Erythraean Sea, which was all one with it, did not flow away too, and thus become lower, but has always retained the same level ? and since Eratosthenes sup- poses the whole exterior sea to be confluent, it follows that the Western Ocean 5 and the Erythraean Sea are all one ; and thus [remarks Hipparchus] as a necessary consequence, the sea be- yond the Pillars of Hercules, the Erythraean Sea, and that also which is confluent with it, 6 have all the same level. 1 El-K^g. 2 The Arabian Gulf. Mr. Stephenson, while examin- ing flie~Temsah Lakes, anciently called the Bitter Lakes, discovered re- cent marine remains similar to those on the shores of the present sea, clearly showing that the basin of the Temsah Lakes was the head of the Arabian Gulf at a period geologically recent. arrrjs. The French editors propose ovvevSovcrriG e TYIQ flaXarrjjc, with the sense of " but on the retiring of the Mediterranean," &c. 4 This accusation may not seem quite fair to the English reader. Touch is the nearest term in our language by which we can express the Greek vvvaTTTU), the use of which Strabo objects to in this passage ; still the meaning of the English word is much too definite for the Greek. 5 The Atlantic. Viz. the Mediterranean.
 * We have here followed MSS. which all read vvveXOovviiG & T% $a-